Stelios Tritaios

He was born in the village of Kato Pyrgos¹ Tillyria, Nicosia province, in 1930.

He died on June 17, 1958 in London², where he was transferred for treatment after being tortured by the English.

Stelios Tritaios finished his village's primary school and worked in Nicosia³. He joined EOKA from the beginning of the struggle together with the hero Georgios Nikolaou and collaborated with the Kato Pyrgos guerrilla group, as well as with local EOKA figures in the area. He was the main link between this isolated area and Nicosia. He arranged for the shipment of the rebels' mail, weapons and clothing in bags of bran. The British were never able to discover anything.

After the execution of a traitor in Pyrgos by EOKA in November 1956, the betrayal was continued by his relatives and many EOKA members in the area were arrested, including Stelios Tritaios. They were held in an air force camp between Pentageia and Xeros, where they were tortured for seventeen days.

When Stelios Tritaios was released to go home, he was seriously injured in the chest where he had been beaten with a chain. He was placed under house arrest, but his condition was worsening. Repeated attempts by his wife and fellow fighters to have him flown to England for treatment, where his siblings were, failed because he was unable to move without support.

In June 1958, Governor Sir Hugh Foot, who had replaced Governor Fieldmarshal Harding at the end of the previous year, facilitated, in a gesture of political expediency, the sending of Tritaios to London for treatment.

On 17 June 1958, he underwent heart surgery. According to what Chief Physician Scots, who operated on Tritaios, reported much later to his son, the hero had been effectively dead since the moment he received a strong blow to the chest. This blow had caused necrosis of part of the heart. With the removal of this dead part, death occurred two hours after the operation.